Disclaimer: I have not ridden in the Little 500 bicycle race! But... I have ridden in a few races on Bill Armstrong and have eight years of experience in the competitive cycling scene.
I hope some of my outside perspective can help you get faster!
The Cost Problem:
Specialized Bicycles broke into the market in early September with the release of their new top-of-the-line road bike, the Tarmac SL8, listed at $14,000.
That's a 2015 Mercedes Benz C-Class; a three-bedroom, one bath house in Detroit, MI.; that's fourteen-thousand dollars no college kid is going to spend for a bicycle.
It's an overpriced product that indisputably shows how cycling is a sport for the upper-class.
And while those aerodynamic gains that can come from purchasing are important (Trek's data shows ~80-90 seconds saved during a one-hour ride on the Madone over a standard round-tubed bike), there are other much more cost-effective gains that can be utilized.
If you're interested in those cost-effective gains, you are in the right place. Here are a few of my favorite ways to be a faster rider for low (or no) cost:
Aero socks/gloves
Picture of my socks and overshoes at the North American 24hr TT championships
If you know me, you know I always rock some Aliexpress aero socks -- I never leave for a ride without them. You'll also know that I pull them sons a bitches as high as they can go -- and for good reason. I could probably write a whole article on aero socks by themselves, but here's a quick rundown of why they're fast:
Nopinz Aero sock/calf guard data @ different yaw angles and speed
Nopinz data from earlier this year shows a few watts can be saved by using an aero sock over a standard cotton sock. At 26mph -- about the speed of the fastest individual pursuit riders in the Little 500 scene -- the aero socks will save around five watts.
An image showing the air-tripping fabrics of aero socks
Josh Poertner, owner of Silca and previous head-engineer for Zipp, mentioned in a Dylan Johnson Q&A how the aerodynamics of a calf (or lack thereof) work, and why an aerodynamic sock can minimize the wake of dirty air flowing around and behind the calf.
"The smarter we get with our [fabric] texture, the longer we can trick the air into holding that surface. And the longer it holds onto the surface, the smaller the wake," Poertner says.
The same applies to the dimples found on a golf ball.
In terms of height -- Josh says, essentially: the higher, the better.
"You think of your lower leg -- it's actually not that unaerodynamic of a surface. But you get up into the calf, like the muscle, and it's a terrible aerodynamic surface," he says. "And so the higher the sock, the more effective the tripping of the boundary layer can be."
And while Aliexpress socks are probably outdated in their air-tripping fabrics, they're still a solid choice. At just $5 a pop, you don't have to be gentle with them like other high-end aero socks.
The same goes for aero gloves — they’re not the fastest, but they’re cheap, and are faster over a standard cycling glove. And since gloves are required at Bill Armstrong, the aero gloves should be a no-brainer.
And if you do decide to purchase the socks, a great way to keep them staying up as high as they can go is by spraying a small amount of hairspray where the silicone on the socks will contact your leg.
Here's a link to the socks on Aliexpress.
And the link to the gloves.
Tip: If you buy the socks or gloves from Aliexpress, just be careful and understand the risk (delivery timing, giving info, incorrect products arriving) -- the site in general can be somewhat sketchy.
I'll have a full article on how to purchase from Aliexpress coming soon.
TPU Tubes
Gone are the days of latex tubes -- you may have heard of the new tubes being used in place.
Thermoplastic Polyurethane tubes, otherwise known as TPU tubes, are super compact and lightweight tubes made up from plastic materials.
These kinds of tubes first hit the market back in 2020 with Schwalbe's Aerothans.
Aerocoach did some testing on different tubes back in 2020 following the release of the Aerothans. Here's what they found:
The testing data compares butyl, latex, and TPU tubes.
Essentially, Latex tubes prove to have better rolling resistance than the Schwalbe Aerothans by ~1.5w.
But with all of the acceleration seen in Little 500 from the frequent exchanges, I think that the lighter TPU tubes would perform better overall.
A standard 28c butyl tube weighs ~120g, a standard Vittoria 25-28c latex tube weighs ~70g, and TPU tubes? RideNow's lightest 20-28c TPU tube weighs just 19g -- a saving of 51g over a latex tube, meaning running TPU tubes on both wheels will save ~102 grams. Running TPUs over butyl tubes will save a collective 202g (that's nearly half of a pound)!
If you want to use TPU tubes in the 32mm Little 500 standard tires, RideNow's 32-47mm tubes weigh 45g. I don't have experience running TPU tubes on my Little 500 bike, but I'd recommend not using the 18-32mm-rated tubes -- since the tubes will be expanded to their highest rating of 32mm with the Little 500 standard-issue 32mm Pasela tires, they'll be more prone to popping or splitting.
In an interview I did last year with Jesse Smith regarding the Melanzana State bikes, Smith revealed that lightweight tubes are "bang for your buck, the best upgrade," due to the rolling resistance, and more importantly: less rotational weight.
If rotational weight is such a big deal in the Little 500 like Smith says, then TPU tubes take the cake over latex and butyl.
Picture of the Melanzana team's 2023 L500 bicycle - the orange valve stem of the Tubilito latex tube can be seen towards the top of the rim.
Tip: If you do decide to purchase TPU tubes, make sure your rim tape is properly covering spoke and valve holes -- two of the three flats I have gotten while using TPU tubes were from the sharp edge of the valve hole not being covered by rim tape (the other was a glass shard).
IU Nutritional Services
Spoiled...
That's what IU scholarship athletes are. I'm sure the athletes are grateful for the facilities and services offered by IU in order to help them perform better on gameday, but still... spoiled!
The Tobias Nutrition Center over in Memorial Stadium offers the services of two full-time sports nutritionists with meals and snacks available throughout the day for student athletes.
Tobias Nutrition Center - Image courtesy of IU Athletics
Unfortunately, those nutritional services aren't able to be utilized by club or intramural athletes -- but there is a halfway solution to accessing nutritional aid that IU athletes receive.
Did you know that IU Bloomington offers one free nutrition consultation per semester to their students? It's another service that's likely underutilized by students of IU.
Last semester I sat down with Dr. Bobbie Saccone: Ph.D. in nutrition, Assistant Director of Nutritional Health Programming, and Interim Associate Director of Health and Wellness at IU.
We had a one-hour long conversation regarding nutrition for both training and recovery.
Prior to the consultation, I had to fill out forms about my eating habits, eating frequency, and general lifestyle. Through these forms and discussion, we found that my recovery nutrition wasn't all that great -- and adjustments were made to solve that issue.
For me, we decided that I should drink some chocolate milk following rides and workouts. Dr. Saccone specifically recommended FairLife because of its higher protein content -- it's also highly accessible and not too expensive if you buy the milk by the gallon.
Expense and accessibility are things IUHC is concerned about -- since their entire client body is made up of students, they are able to consider the need for cheaper and easy-to-make meals that still offer high nutritional value.
For each and every rider it will be different -- some may need better recovery nutrition (like myself), more micronutrients, hydration, etc., and it can be helped through the consultation.
Roberta Saccone was super friendly and helpful -- I'll be looking to go back this semester.
Here's where you can sign up for the once-per-semester free consultation.
Just Ride (and recover)!
Sometimes the best way to get faster is by just riding with the equipment you have. I personally think that people get too caught up in the flashiest new wheelset or marginal gain claim like those $800 oversized pulley wheels, or the new $14,000 S-Works bike.
I remember talking to last year's winner Torin Kray-Mawhorr regarding the new State Bikes. He said something to the likes of "Little 500 bikes are going to be 99% the same." As in -- the expensive upgrades on the Little 500 bikes that people obsess over don't amount to much.
I also think that the best training bike for anyone is the bike that's available to them. Any bike that is capable of being ridden is a bike that someone can use to gain fitness, get to class, get to the grocery store... etc.
Heck! My bikes aren't the newest or fastest -- my main steed is a rim-brake round-tube bike with mechanical shifting!
In relation to this subject, I also think the same goes for recovery products. You can buy Normatec recovery boots for $800, or a Theragun massager for $300 -- but according to Lachlan Penfold, who is the ex Sports Performance Neurotechnologist (CV) for the Golden State Warriors and current Director of Performance for the Melbourne Storm, those recovery products only account for 2% of recovery -- most of your time and effort towards recovering should be focused on sleep, nutrition, and stress management, which make up about 50% of total recovery.
Diagram of Penfold's Recovery Pyramid in Dr. Marc Bubb's book "Peak."
So while this list is partially focused on ways to become faster via equipment gainz, the overall takeaway should be that there are other more efficient ways to accumulate fitness and speed that aren't found in equipment.
Just ride the bike you've got and get some sleep/manage stress/prioritize nutrition (and maybe buy some aero socks and TPU tubes)!
Bonus: Facebook Marketplace/EBay/Pinkbike
There are so many awesome deals you can find online if you just take some time to look and do research!
I'll be making a whole writing dedicated to this subject SOON! Stay tuned.
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